The present disclosure relates generally to digital medical images and particularly to the management of digital medical images.
In digital radiography, the maximum size of an image from a single radiographic exposure is determined primarily by the size of the detector. Typical sizes are 41×41 centimeters (cm) for a flat panel detector or 14×17 inches (36×43 cm) for a Computed Radiography (CR) plate. Large anatomies such as the whole spine, legs, and the chest/lung region of a large patient for example, may not be imaged within a single detector area.
Various methods to accommodate such imaging requirements for large anatomies have been developed. Individual exposures of smaller regions within a large anatomy may be taken with some overlap and viewed separately, such as two images to view the left and the right side of the chest, or individual images of sections of the spine, for example. Individual exposures may be taken with some overlap, and subsequently manually aligned as digital images to create a composite image comprising each of the individual exposures. Multiple digital images may also be automatically aligned to create a composite image.
Viewing individual images does not provide a composite image of the anatomy. There may also be variability in image quality and/or magnification between the individual images depending on anatomy and radiographic technique, which may be distracting, therefore reducing the diagnostic quality of the image. The process of manually aligning the images may be cumbersome and require multiple iterations. Automatic creation of composite images and composite image processing may provide significant savings in operator time and consistent image quality along the extant of the composite image. However, due to patient motion during acquisition, imperfect positioning, and software and hardware failures, an inaccurate or misaligned composite image may be created. Inaccurate alignment may affect the quality of the composite image processing. Due to system or user errors, the system may be unable to automatically create a composite image following acquisition of the individual images in a sequence.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an improved image management arrangement that overcomes these drawbacks.